Highlighting the obtuse, the slanted and sometimes just plain ignorant writings found in The Gray Lady

Month: January 2016

In today’s Sunday Review The Times designated “chief film critic” – is there a big hardhat and badge that goes along with that? – A.O. Scott gets a big front pager and jumps off with one of the most pretentious lines we’ve come across in a coon’s age: “To be a critic is to be a defender of the life of art and a champion of the art of living.”

He goes on to diss the Oscars, popular movies, people in show business and just about everyone else, including “cheerleader(s) empowered by social media.” Huh?

Here’s our point. Scott finally comes around to saying “…above all… our job is to think.” Implicit in this statement is the assumption that the general public, when giving their views of films, DON’T think. That’s right. Us regular schmucks are uneducated, unthinking schmoes who are dependent on A.O.Scott to tell us what’s what.

We’re never one to jump on the populist bandwagon but we are also squarely aware of privileged, elitist, We-Know-Better-Than-You writers like A.O. Scott.

The funniest kicker? Wrapping up his self-love article Scott admonishes the unwashed masses to go see what thinking geniuses like himself believe will elevate those masses. He then tosses out the current theatre hit “Hamilton” and TV’s “Transparent.”

Why is this funny? “Hamilton” and “Transparent” are the two shows that every single critic around has been pushing for years.

That’s not Thinking. That’s just following the herd. The critic’s herd.